Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance]

Following public consultation and Scrutiny Review, the report will set out the details of proposed budget for 2019/20 and MTFS through to 2023/24, including savings, growth and capital proposals. The report will also set out details of provisional funding for 2019/20 and if available the remainder of the planning period and highlight areas of risk. The report will be for onward approval by Full Council on the 25th of February, and will include the details of the council tax resolution.

[ Appendix 7  - Overview and Scrutiny recommendations and responses  to  these recommendations is marked to follow]

[Cllr Mark Blake entered the meeting for the start of this item]

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the Council’s 5 year Medium Financial Strategy for 2019-24. This would provide a clear financial plan during this period of uncertainty for local authority budgeting. It was noted that the Council had been able to bridge the £6.5m budget gap communicated in the December MTFS report. This had been arrived at through minimal recourse to additional savings or cuts to services.

The Cabinet Member re-iterated the unprecedented reductions to government funding for local services over the last 8 years. This meant that Councils were finding it difficult to keep up with rising cost or demand. This was also causing an impact on those most in need and further causing an impact on quality of life for residents.

The Cabinet Member commented that local authorities had reached a stage where making cuts would now cause an  overspend in another area of the budget. This has been highlighted by the ‘breaking point’ campaign being led by the Islington Council Leader.

In compiling the Medium Term Financial Plan, there had been attention given to supporting the manifesto priorities of supporting the delivery of Youth services, become a London Living wage employer, and extending the council tax reduction scheme.

The Cabinet Member further welcomed the removal of the borrowing cap on the HRA which would help the Council in their commitment to deliver 1000 new Council homes at Council rents.

However, it was important to recognise that the next year’s budget process will again be a hard process with demand increasing and households coming under pressure from welfare reductions and rising housing costs.

The attached report was putting forward a balanced budget for 2019/20. It was also currently estimated that the Council will not need to utilise balances in 2018/19.

The Vice Chair of Overview and Scrutiny was invited to present the scrutiny recommendations contained at appendix 7 of the report pack. She drew attention to the important work of scrutiny and the key role of this function in the budget setting process. There was a request for increased access to officers with financial expertise to assist the panels and main Committee in their scrutiny of the budget and their regular consideration of the quarterly budget update. This was particularly important given the number of medium to high risk savings listed in the budget.

The Vice Chair of Overview & Scrutiny continued to draw attention to the medium to high-risk savings listed in the Scrutiny recommendations. It was important to note real risk around these areas and the risk to achieving savings next year. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had noted the use of reserves to balance the 2019/20 Budget. Whilst the Committee fully acknowledged the risk around unachievable savings, there was also the risk attached to savings that were being taken forward negatively affecting residents that need support the most.

The Vice Chair of Overview and Scrutiny highlighted three areas of savings for reconsideration by Cabinet:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80